GIRO D’ITALIA PREVIEW
Giro d’Italia 2021
All stages live on Eurosport and GCN+
1 SATURDAY 8 MAY
TURIN > TURIN | INDIVIDUAL TIME TRIAL
Ten years since Turin hosted the 2011 Grande Partenza to celebrate the 150-year anniversary of the unification of Italy, the Giro returns, this time to celebrate the 160th anniversary. The nation will no doubt be united behind Filippo Ganna, who won all three time trials in last year’s race, and will be hot favourite to do so again on what is a straightforwardly short and flat course. At just 8.6km long, there won’t be any significant gaps between the GC favourites, but the stage will offer a revealing glimpse of who’s arrived at the Giro in good form.
8.6 KM
2 SUNDAY 9 MAY
STUPINIGI (NICHELINO) > NOVAR A | FLAT
Though the Alps loom on the horizon here in Piemonte, there are no nasty surprises in store for the riders as they head north-east through the Po valley towards the town of Novara. A 22-year-old Eddy Merckx won his first ever Giro stage when the race last visited Novara in 1968, but a flat parcours today makes this a nailed-on sprint finish.
The biggest concern for the GC men will be the possibility of crashes – early stages of Grand Tours are notoriously nervous affairs, and any rider lacking either alertness or luck could find their race coming to a premature end.
179 KM
3 MONDAY 10 MAY
BIELLA > CANALE | HILLY
When is a climb not a climb? The roadbook may not list two small rises inside the final 15km of this undulating stage in Piemonte as official categorised climbs, but
